Spot the difference!

We had lovely weather today, so spent a lot of the day outside. Nat & Jeremy went up to the allotment for a while; Jeremy planted out loads of the beans (more on that later) and Nat mowed everything he could think of, particularly the paths and round the orchard.

Meanwhile, I sowed the next lot of seeds - mostly brassicas (purple sprouting broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, pak choi and Chinese cabbage (yes, I know the last two should be the same thing, but they look different on the packets, so we'll see what happens...)) and then some "cutting celery" and goji berries (just because I had the packets). See if you can see what's changed in the greenhouse after all that!

So, about those beans... after much to-ing and fro-ing, we finally worked out that what I thought were "Purple Queen" French beans were, in fact, runner beans. I was thrown by the fact that the beans themselves were purple, as I'd remembered the "Purple Queen" ones to be. Well, you live and learn... still, it meant that we had runner beans ready to go!

Seedlings

All the trays in the greenhouse are now showing signs of life. With frosts predicted overnight for the next few days, however, it's still not time to plant them all out.

Here, clockwise from the left, we have celeriac, salad leaves, French beans and squash at the back, then sweetcorn, more beans, tomatoes, chives and some other herb, possibly oregano. And more sweetcorn in the middle at the very front. To the right of what you can see here is a propagator with basil and another herb, possibly coriander. Finally, on the other side of the greenhouse are yet more sweetcorn, beans and squashes.

Sprouts

... not the Brussels kind, but there are definitely some sprouts in the greenhouse from the 'Purple Queen' dwarf French beans, the lettuce/salad leaves and from the sunflowers (I forgot to mention them last time - we're finishing off a packet from last year; I also forgot to mention the chives.). Now, providing I keep remembering to water everything, I'm sure it won't be long before we see even more signs of life!

Digging and sowing

Nat's parents are up for a couple of days, which means that there have been enough spare hands to look after David and also do some allotmenting. Nat's dad has dug over lots more of the ground, particularly the first bed, where the brassicas are going.



He also filled up loads of seed trays and cellular pots with compost, ready for planting seeds in. We then went from this ...




... to this, this afternoon. The trays are now all back in the greenhouse, which has been wonderfully tidied, thanks to Nat's mum. There's just about enough space for all the trays on the greenhouse staging.


So, planted/sown today were: French beans, dwarf French beans, courgettes, squashes, basil, coriander, oregano, celeriac, lettuce, tomatos and sweetcorn (in toilet roll inners).

There's a separate pile of seeds to be planted directly at the allotment: rocket, spinach, peas, carrots (2 varieties) and parsnips.

And finally, the seeds to be planted in seed trays next month are: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, more tomatos, chinese cabbage, pak choi, celery and goji berries.

Spring flowers

Spring is finally here, and the allotment has responded with the bulbs starting to come into bloom at last after the long winter. On the left above are the first row of tulips to come out, and the hyacinths. On the right, you can see the rows of daffodils just coming out as well. Another week or so and it'll really look wonderful, especially when the small multi-headed daffodils are out.

Nat and Jeremy have been hard at work for the last few weekends digging over the various vegetable beds ready for this year's crops. It's really looking good now - here's the bed that the potatoes are going into, along with the onions , carrots and parsnips. As photos go, it's not very exciting, but the soil is looking lovely and clear, which is the main point. :)

Now, unfortunately, there are rumours afoot that the parish council may have some plans that will affect the allotments - details are non-existent at the moment, but there's a meeting a week on Thursday about it, so watch this space...

Digging

Something has been digging on our allotment, and it hasn't been us! I went up today to have a look round with the intention of starting off with the allotment again this weekend. In the first bed, the daffodils are coming up nicely; although, as I heard on the radio this morning, the cold winter is delaying the spring flowers, and we might end up with the daffs and tulips coming out together! No sign of any growth at all from the tulips yet, though, so I'm not quite convinced yet.

However, in the bed where we planted the onion sets back in the autumn, there are definite signs of activity (see picture). It looks rather as though something has been digging a few inches down all over that area. I didn't have the tools to investigate much, so I'm not sure if some of the onion sets have been eaten, but even if they have, there are fewer holes that there were sets, so we should get at least some crop. Very odd, though - is it rabbits?

New Year

Well, we didn't get any Christmas sprouts after all, but mostly because we got halfway to my parents' house before suddenly remembering that we hadn't picked them after all. I went up to the allotment the week after we got back, though, and discovered a reasonable sprinkling of sprouts on the plants, although some had clearly been nibbled, despite the netting. Having checked over the brassica cage, I discovered that one of the layers of netting had come undone, leaving a huge space that hungry animals could get through to eat our brassicas. I tried to make it good again, to prevent further incursion, but haven't checked again since to see if it's lasted. Hopefully I'll get up there again this weekend, and actually pick some sprouts this time!

Despite the snowy, frosty weather we've had for the past few weeks, the daffodils are starting the come through - here's a picture of some of the larger shoots. It was lovely last year when we had a riot of colour between the daffodils and the tulips, and I'm really looking forward to that again this year.

I had a look over the rest of the plot as well - weeds pretty much under control, unsurprisingly, given the time of year, and no signs of life from the onions yet - but it's still very early for them.

Not long now before I need to start thinking about what we're planting this year. I'm waiting to be told that the seed potatoes have arrived at the allotment shop in town - I should probably chase that up to make sure they're not sitting waiting for me! Other than that, I think we have all the seeds we need already, from last year's packets.

This will be an interesting year for our allotment, as we're expecting a baby in early March (peak seed sowing time!). On the other hand, I'll be off on maternity leave for a few months, and I'm sure the baby can just sit and watch me on the allotment sometimes, can't it? Watch this space...